AEGiS-GMHC: IN BRIEF: Insurance Outrage

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

IN BRIEF: Insurance Outrage

Gay Men's Health Crisis Treatment Issues, Vol. 5, No. 7 - October, 1991

In just weeks, hundreds of thousands of individuals may be forced off of private insurance and on to Medicaid because Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, a major insurer of PWAs and HIV-positive people, is proposing drastic increases in its premiums. Blue Cross insurance companies in New York City, as well as the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and Rockland are facing insolvency, and therefore applying to the State Insurance Department to increase premiums by 50% for all individual coverage in October, 1991. This plan also calls for small businesses of three to 49 people to have employees fill out individual medical questionnaires. If any employee has "health problems," the premiums for the entire group increase by 50%. Blue Cross is claiming financial troubles in part due to their open enrollment plan, and the fact that other insurers have successfully lured away "good risk" (meaning healthy) customers by offering medical insurance at lower rates. Needless to say the impact of this plan will be disastrous, causing many to lose the means for access to reasonable health care. For more information, call the Insurance and Health Care Access Committee of ACT-UP, 135 W. 29th St., New York, NY 10001 at (212) 564- 2437.

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